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Welcome to Shadows of Trains!
This site is dedicated to helping people see the past with future tools. Thousands of miles of former railway right-of-way is clearly visible... if you know where to look. Have you driven by a building that is curved for no reason? Ever looked out the car window and wondered how they could plant a line of trees that stretched out as far as could be? It could be that you are seeing the shadows of trains... railroads that have come and gone but left their mark on the earth. This site exists to help you answer your curiosities.
PLEASE NOTE
This section of the site is being retired due to MediaWiki's inability to provide tools that let me keep spammers out. If you are here for legitimate reasons, I'm sorry for the confusion. Please head over to the new, less spammer friendly page at http://wiki.shadowsoftrains.org/groups/shadowsoftrains/
I'm moving all the data over little by little, so there isn't much you can do here.
-Mike (3/09/2010)
Google Earth's view of CGW and CAE's Villa Park Depots west of the former Ovaltine Factory west of Chicago. The Chicago Great Western right of way is now the Great Western Trail. The Chicago Aurora and Elgin right of way is now the Illinois Prairie Path. Ovaltine is gone... I'm not sure who misses that.
Contents |
Map with All Lines
Want to see them all in one map? So did we, so we created the All Map... have fun with that (updated 9/3/08)
Rail Lines With Maps
List with all railroads on one page: Category:Railroads
These are the Railroads that have maps uploaded at this point:
Chicago Great Western (CGW) CGW Map with Photos
Chicago Northwestern (CNW) CNW Map
Rock Island (RI) RI Map with Photos
Milwaukee Road (MILW) MILW Map with Photos
Chicago Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) (CB&Q Map)
If you would like to create your own, feel free! Just make sure to list it in this section when you are done. If you have never created a page in a wiki, you might want to go to my "How to List new Railroad" page which will walk you through it.
Interurban and Rail Lines With Maps
List with all interurbans on one page: Category:Interurban
These are the Interurban and Trolley lines that have maps uploaded at this point:
Chicago North Shore Line Interurban (NSL) NSL Map
Chicago Aurora and Elgin (CAE)) CAE Map
Aurora, Elgin and Fox River Electric Company (AE&FRE) AE&FRE Map with Photos
If you would like to create your own, feel free! Just make sure to list it in this section when you are done. If you have never created a page in a wiki, you might want to go to my "How to List new Railroad" page which will walk you through it.
Why Another Train Page?
Welcome. I'm not sure how you found the site, but I'm pleased you are here. I love ariel views of what no longer exists... especially train tracks. I see them all the time when I fly, and now I map them in Google Earth. But where can I share this odd hobby? Yes, there are places to post my maps. Yes there are places to talk about trains. What I couldn't find was place to do both, so I created this one that became shadowsoftrains.org.
As I accumulated detail, I realized that I needed a better way to organize all this and, being a professional geek, I put together this site where:
-I can list and organize my findings
-Share the details and maps with others
-Allow anyone to share their own details and recollections about railroads in their part of the world
So please jump in and add to the historical record before the details fade away. Who knows.. perhaps your information will help today's decision makes understand the power of transportation. If you want to know more about how it got it's start, visit my user page at User:Mike miley
Beta
Welcome to the first beta release of the site. Maps are working. Images are working.... what is broken? Have a suggestion? Edit the "What's next?" section of the Projects page.
For now... I'll work on adding content as fast as I can
- H. Michael Miley
What is Mike working on lately?
1927 Eastern Division Condensed Profile in (CGW) is a highly detailed set of charts that show great details including all crossings, sidings, signals, etc. This was last updated 27 Sept 2008
Want to see a sample map?
This is one of the things I'm working on... mapping the Chicago Great Western. Go ahead... zoom in. Have a look around. Make yourself at home.
That map is based on the KML (Google Earth) file you can download at: http://shadowsoftrains.org/mediawiki/kml/CGW.kml . If you want to see a larger version of that map, visit the CGW Map page.
Museums in Need
While all railway museums would love a donation at any time, there is one that is desperate for help due to recent flooding. The Mid Content Railway Museum in North Freedom Wisconsin is currently closed for the first time in it's history because of flooding. I normally advocate visiting as a way to support an organization but that is not possible, please visit the website, gasp at the photos of the floods, and make a donation to help get the doors open and wheels rolling again.
https://webstore.midcontinent.org/membership/donate.php to make a donation online
Links to Important Pages
Current Projects and todo's
Items Wanted
Special Thanks
See that nifty logo up there? That comes to the site courtesy of Matt "Hollywood" Heeren who not only takes great photos, but is a Engineer on the Wisconsin and Southern railroad! You can see the full sized version of this photo at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/milepost107/2353528898/
You can look at all of Matt's photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/milepost107/
Thanks Matt!
